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There’s more to this story than a simple one-liner

Takoma Park man’s interactive greeting cards tell tales meant to impress

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Brian Lewis⁄The Gazette Takoma Park resident Harvey Solomon, president of Tell Tale Press, poses last week inside the Writers’ Center bookstore in Bethesda with some of his company’s greeting cards.

Instead, the Takoma Park resident put eye-catching and highly stylized graphics on the fronts of the cards and put his writing to work on the backs, giving consumers a brief tale to accompany the artwork. He then invites people to go online to write the rest of the story. Hence, the name of his company: Tell Tale Press.

‘‘You can take it just that far — to read the story on the back — but what we encourage and hope is that you’ll go online and take a look,” Solomon said. ‘‘It continues online with the rest of the story and more content, and that’s how we want to get people involved.”

The cards, available at a handful of area retailers and at the Writer’s Center bookstore in Bethesda, come in a set of collections, with three cards in each set. The Hollywood Collection, for example, includes three vintage scenes reminiscent of a glamorous time in the history of cinema’s home.

The back of one card introduces readers to Blackie’s, a fictional bar where ‘‘drinks were strong, never short” and where patrons coined the phrase ‘‘between a rock and a hard place” following a storeroom brawl. Each mini-story is written to give readers just enough plot and color to pique their interest, Solomon said, and can be read in about 60 seconds.

And for those interested in the goings-on at Blackie’s, a quick trip to www.taletellpress.net turns up more content about film noir and femme fatales, plus another segment of the story started on the back of the card. Readers can then submit their own ending or create a story of their own based on Blackie’s for the chance to win Tell Tale’s biannual writing contest.

Solomon said he drew inspiration for the concept behind Tell Tale Press after looking at old hotel stationery, especially the kind from the 19th century that included intricate artwork.

‘‘It was really ornate and incredibly detailed with beautiful fonts and language” that included phrases like ‘‘circulating ice water in each room” or ‘‘completely fireproof,” he said, adding that it was a time when the very act of writing was considered by some to be an art form.

‘‘I don’t pretend that single-handedly we can bring that back, but I think anything that gets people more involved with the written word is good,” Solomon said. ‘‘Obviously, today we’re a very electronically oriented society — the Internet is here to stay, and people dash things off all the time with e-mail, but if you really want to reach someone, I don’t think there’s anything more effective than written correspondence, be that a letter or a card.”

The cards have had steady sales at the Writer’s Center bookstore in Bethesda, said Jason DeYoung, operations manager, especially because of the writing contest Tell Tale holds every six months.

‘‘You already have literary journals, and you have books, magazines and blogs, so [the cards] are another outlet for writers, and I would like to think that they’re engaging people,” DeYoung said. ‘‘I think they’re unique and interesting. In fact, I think it’s a really good way for new writers to get published because new writers are the ones who have the most difficulty getting into their first publication.”

Solomon works with graphic designers to find artists to produce original work for each collection, including those created to appeal to college students, fashionistas and gay and lesbian audiences.

Tell Tale recently entered its first licensing agreement with the South Norwalk, Conn.,-based Great American Puzzle Co., which will put the artwork in jigsaw puzzles that have Solomon’s stories printed on the back.

No matter what form Tell Tale’s products take, Solomon said they’re all about the story.

‘‘These stories are all around 150 words — they have a beginning, a middle and an end,” he said. ‘‘They introduce a couple of characters and an interesting scenario, and hopefully that’s enough to stir people’s imaginations.”